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Websleuths News

On the latest edition of Websleuths Radio we tackle the Rebecca Zahau murder case and the big mistake made in the autopsy report of the Las Vegas shooter.
CLICK HERE TO LISTEN

An 18-month-old boy’s drowning death in a bathtub last week is now being investigated as a possible homicide, police told The Kansas City Star on Wednesday.

But even more shocking to authorities is that their suspect is a 5-year-old girl.
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On Friday, an adult left a 16-year-old girl, who reportedly has mental disabilities, in charge of several younger children, including Jermane, so the adult could pick up a relative of Jermane’s at a bus stop.
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While no adults were at the home, the 5-year-old girl allegedly dragged Jermane into the tub, which had not been drained after other children took baths.
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She allegedly indicated that she didn’t like the toddler because he “made too much noise,” and “cried too much,” police said. She indicated that she drowned him on purpose, police said.
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I've also hesitated to weigh in as this case brings back very sad and traumatic memories for me. I've related this story before but it probably bears repeating, as a cautionary tale, on this thread.

We adopted a 3 year old little girl from Haiti in the late 80s. We were told that her mother had died soon after her birth and that she'd grown up in a Christian orphanage with excellent care. She was quite the favorite of a nurse who visited the orphanages and she had successfully treated the child's TB. We traveled to Haiti (during a coup, no less) in December 1989 and spent a week with our new daughter and seeing Port au Prince. Never have I been so taken by a country. The people were gracious and kind and welcoming even though the poverty was staggering. Our daughter was adorable and seemed hale and hearty. She was very quiet but we figured that she was just frightened and shy. We already had three birth children and two internationally adopted children so we had some experience with the trauma of transition. After a week, we brought her home. Things did not go well.

Our little girl did not speak. She had horrific night terrors, acting out some strange behaviors. She bit and head butted. She hurt the animals. She hurt herself. She rocked and seemed to be in her own little world until she'd hurt herself or someone else and then she would giggle uncontrollably. She constantly tried to insert toys and other objects, ie utensils, into her vagina. She put things into her mouth which gagged her. We sought help.

The therapist spent some time with her and said that this child had most certainly been seriously abused. We were crestfallen as this had not been disclosed and we had no experience at the time with seriously traumatized children. Our family does not easily give up, however. Adoption was permanent, in our eyes. We kept trying, even though her rages and violent behavior escalated.

One night, at the age of 5, we woke to horrific screams. At first we thought that she was having another night terror. These were common. She would stand in the middle of the room spinning, shrieking and mumbling for hours. Her eyes were open but blank and one ankle, her left, seemed to be pinned to the floor, even though she was free to move. We'd tried everything--warm baths, food, taking her outside, rocking her, music. Doctors tested her for seizures and she was healthy. Nothing worked. They lasted 3-4 hours until she would fall into a stupor and sleep for 12-15 hours straight.

But this night, it was not her screams. They were the screams of our 6 year old daughter. She'd been stabbed in her sleep. Our 5 year old had crawled up into a closet and found my very sharp sewing scissors. She proceeded to cut the girls' dresses which were hanging in the closet, in half. She also poked holes in the bodices of the dresses and tops. She then went to the older girls' room where our 6 and 8 year old daughters slept and attacked the 6 year old through the bedclothes. When we came running, there she was crouched in the corner of the room giggling and playing with the scissors, trying to cut herself. My husband went to her and I went to the 6 year old, who was bleeding. Thankfully, the slices were not terribly serious but she did get stabbed and sliced in 6 places, including the back of her neck. It took my husband, a 200 lb man, a good 15 minutes to get the scissors away from our daughter. He ended up playing a game with her and she finally threw them towards him. He then swept her up and we sat up with her the entire night as she head-butted the walls, bit herself and pulled at her genitals. It was, bar none, the most horrific night of our lives.

The following day, we took her to the therapist who was mandated to make a report. The police had no idea what to do nor did we. We were exhausted, though, and it was clear that we could no longer parent this child. DHS helped us go to court and we asked the judge to dissolve the adoption so that she could be placed in a treatment home with no children. The day she left, she never turned around to look at us. The lovely doll which I sent with her was destroyed in the social worker's car. She also ripped her clothes off.

We learned later that she'd been placed with a couple who had no children. But they had a dog. She killed the dog. When it was examined, it was found to have needles inserted under its skin, especially around her genitalia. Our little girl was then sent to a specialized residential facility. I'll never forget receiving a detailed report about a year later concerning her. There on the forms was a diagnosis, "homicidal tendencies". I was ruined. Homicidal at age five?

Two years passed and our family began to heal. We ended up having 7 children placed with us for adoption within an 18 months period. Many were tough kids but nothing like the challenges presented by our one little girl. One day, out of the blue, we were contacted by a missionary who'd just returned from Haiti. He'd had a falling out with the orphanage director where our little girl had been. He told us her real story.

She'd been "sold" to a Haitian minister's family who used her as a scapegoat. She was locked in a filthy, bug infested closet and taken out only to be raped for her first 2 1/2 years, before being sent to the orphanage which chose not to disclose this into to us. He'd been told that one of the young men in the family used a fork to penetrate her and that she was used in frequent voodoo rituals. When she was allowed to be out of the closet, her foot had been staked to the ground...her left foot. It all suddenly made sense.

May God watch over that child. I have no idea where she is. But I know that she lived through hell. I hope she's found some peace.

The bottom line is that trauma or faulty brain chemistry can cause very young children to do the unthinkable.

Missizzy, I have seen you speak in bits and pieces about this but I had never gotten the full story. I am so sorry you had to go through that. How awful for you and your family. I, too, hope the little girl has found some peace.

That was kind of my thought, that this child must have gone through some type of major trauma to be able to do this. That, or she was just born with a horrible chemical imbalance. I am definitely not pointing fingers here, but I would like to know more about the home life of the children involved in the story.

She needs to be evaluated for develomental delays and possible abuse. My best bet would be a developmental delay due to her not knowing it was wrong. I am still trying to teach my nephew, which he is 5, to be nice to animals and people. She needs help!

I feel confident in saying that a child that age who has developmental delays would not have the problem solving skills that this child seems to have. She had a problem and she solved the problem. Children with developmental delays don't have the ability to solve a problem that they're faced with.

davehead--I don't fully agree, given what I've seen in my children. Nine of our fourteen are formally diagnosed with some level of developmental delay (IQs ranging from 50-low 80s). Obviously, I have no earthly clue about this child nor do I fully know just what level of intelligence our daughter had. It was like her thinking brain was locked away. She was an extremely reactive child. The dog licked her, she hit the dog. Her plate was empty, she'd throw her plate. She wanted the scissors, she found them. A good bit of thought, planning and action went into her final violent act in our home but typically she merely reacted.

I've had children with DD makes horrid, self-defeating choices. I've also had those same kids think clearly and "use their IQ points twice". It's really hard to know and much depends on the situation and the tone in that home that particular day. Talk about keeping you on your toes. I've spent decades no being surprised by behaviors and actions and moments when I was literally floored by something a child did.

As an example, I have a daughter with a 63 IQ. She's a working prostitute. She can only read at a second grade level and doesn't even know the months of the year or the days of the week. And yet she can text with the best of them--far faster than I ever could. One of the things I've learned with kids with DD, especially those with DD caused by prenatal drug exposure, is that they can surprise you. Just when you think you've figured them out, they do something tremendously foolish or glowingly fabulous.

I'd be very interested to know if this child showed any remorse when confronted with the finality of her actions. That would tell me a lot about her.